Drop Off Lockers
One of my stores is Partially Attended and has a Drop Off, Wash / Dry / Fold Service. The Self Serve part of the store is open 24 hours a day and the attendants are there from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm.
The store is attended 7 days a week but closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and some other national holidays (it usually depends on the day of the week the holiday falls on and if all the employees want the day off. For example, if July 4th is on a Saturday or Sunday they will usually take the day off. We also close early on Christmas Eve as it gets very slow in the afternoon and everyone, including the employees, want to get things done.
Occasionally we had comments from customers about not being able to drop their clothes off before work. Also, some employees arrive 15 or 20 minutes before their shift starts in the morning and others are about 5 minutes. Another concern was contractors that may not be able to get back by 6 pm and were leaving town that evening or the next day. So I started looking for ways to help out these customers.
One idea was a type of Laundry Chute but this had more cons than pros. To be big enough for a laundry bag, a child or small adult could also fit. When I was a kid a friend of mine got into the Post Office through the package drop slot. It was more of a challenge than anything and answering to your parents when the police dropped you off was the worst part.
Also, there was the concern about trash or liquids being dropped in and damaging the clothes.
I considered using Laundry Locker an Internet-based remote locker system but we only needed a couple of lockers and it was right in the store.
Next was a search on eBay for some lockers. as some of us may remember there used to be various sized lockers in bus and train stations and airports but most have been removed. I did find a guy that had a warehouse full of large lockers from an airport that was in really great shape and big enough to hold a laundry basket but again I only needed a couple and the cost of the lockers and shipping was too much.
More searching and I found the lockers shown in the pictures. They actually came as a set of 6. 3 top and 3 bottoms and were bolted all together but the price was right. I had them shipped to a trucking warehouse a couple of blocks from the store. I used the trucking company to have them shipped so they agreed to give me a little floor space to take them apart so I could move them.
I ended up with the two to start with and I have the other four in my office. As they were all connected I would need to add an end section to use them separately or I could bolt them all together again into a bank of 6.
The next step- The lockers were designed to put a padlock on the handle which was not going to work. More internet searching and I found some quarter operated locks from the Taiwan Lock Company. The locks were about $22 each, I ordered 3, in case I messed one up. They were shipped by Fed-Ex air. This cost about the same as the locks.
As you may have gathered from some of my other posts I sometimes do the work myself and have a variety of tools so I did the lock installation my self. You could source this to a local welding or machine shop as I do with some other items.
Once the locks were in and the painting touched up I put them to use.
A couple of weeks ago I asked my attendants if they were being used and they said they do have some regular customers that use them every week.
We also have a procedure where a customer can pay at Drop Off and take a key with them so they can pick up their clothes after hours. The Attendant Steps are all covered in the Operation Standards Available Here.
This has been a great convenience item for our customers.
Let me know if you have any Drop Off Lockers and where they came from.
Ken
